Memories
by Trixfan
Summary: What would happen to our close knit Bob White's if there was a sudden disapperance?  Don't dispair, this story takes time to unfold.
1. Chapter 1

**Prelude**

**Sleepyside, 27****th**** May 1992**

Sargent Molinson tucked his cap under his left arm and raked his long fingers through his thinning black hair. This would have to be one of the most trying duties he had had to preform in his twenty years as a police officer. With a sinking heart he approached the white washed farm house. Nervously he rang the bell as he waited for the approaching footsteps to open the door before him, and Pandora's Box.

'Sargent,' hope sprung to the woman's blue eyes when she realised who had come at this late hour. It was tempered by anxiety.

'Ma'am,' he nodded politely, trying once again to straighten his thoughts.

'Do…do you have any news?' she was holding her breath, not sure wether to be frightened or comforted by the officers sudden, if expected appearance.

'I'm sorry, Mrs Belden,' he managed through gritted teeth, 'we're scaling down the search. I'll keep the case active as long as I can…'

'Thank you, Sargent,' Helen nodded briefly, closing the door in his face.

Molinson heard her slip to the floor on the other side of the heavy wooden panel and her heart ranching sobs cut the air. Cursing under his breath and feeling helpless, Molinson returned to his police cruiser.

_Tomorrow__'s been 4 weeks, 28 days since she disappeared_, the sergeant silently considered the statistics, _the chances of finding her alive… _

**Chapter One**

**Sleepyside Town Limits, Sunday Afternoon in mid July 2004**

Sarah was sleepy.

They had been driving since early morning, meandering their way through the country side, in no great rush to get home. The week in Boston had been a wonderful vacation from her high paced life in New York. She had revisited Harvard, where she and Callum had once attended College. Together, they had reminisced on the years they had spent there as students. This time out from her life had culminated in a five year reunion with her classmates last evening.

'Can we stop for a break?' Sarah turned to her companion.

'We're only an hour or so from home,' Callum complained. 'Do we really need to stop, again?' Softening his rebuke with a warm smile, he continued, 'I though you had seen all the quintessential American small towns you could handle on this trip.'

'This one reminds me of…oh it doesn't matter.' Sarah's frown turned into a smile as her blue eyes twinkled with mischief. 'I need the bathroom.'

'I should have guessed,' Callum rolled his eyes. 'What's wrong with that bladder of your's anyway? This is the fifth time we have had to stop for a bathroom break since this morning.'

'A coffee at that quaint little diner I saw wouldn't go astray either,' Sarah hinted, unable to meet his enquiring stare.

'Decaf,' he stated in a proprietary manner.

'If you insist,' she laughed, not giving anything away.

'A full shot of caffeine at this hour of the day will have you bouncing off the walls until midnight,' Callum grinned wickedly. 'Not that I don't like you bouncing off the walls until midnight, only it always got a little trying on Mother's nerves.'

'Our Mother is entirely correct,' Sarah sighed at the byplay between them, 'when she calls you a cad Callum Cavanaugh.'

Parking the car outside of Wimpies, Sarah rushed into the dinner asking, 'Could you please point me in the direction of the restrooms?'

The man behind the counter did a double take, before directing her with a finger and open mouth.

'Thanks,' Sarah threw him a smile but was intrigued by the man's reaction to her appearance. _Well they say everyone has a double_, she laughed at the thought_, and mine must live in this town._

Callum had pre-empted Sarah, and ordered coffee to go. He was anxious to be on the road. Smiling at the man in her life, Sarah wondered how she had ever been lucky enough to find him and his family. Callum had taken to her like a long lost sister, while his parents learnt to love her as the daughter they never had, in the long months of convalescence after the car accident which claimed the life of her father and some of her memories. Later they had talked adoption, but Sarah felt bemused at the though of becoming a Cavanaugh when she was almost 17. Her foster mother was not a woman to be gainsaid, and eventually Mary had had her way.

'In a rush to get home,' Sarah laughed, picking up the cardboard cup her adopted brother held out for her.

Some of the mirth left her expression as she realised the byplay between Callum and herself was intently noticed by the tall, thin man behind the counter. His eyes followed her progress out into the parking lot.

'You bet yar,' Callum's baby blue's clouded over with emotion he rarely allowed to show. Opening the car door, he stoped Sarah. 'You maybe my not-real-blood-related-sister, but that doesn't mean I don't like spending quality time with you. And then there is the little matter of me going back to work tomorrow, even if _**you**_ have another week off.'

'I'm working evenings at the women's shelter,' she reminded. 'Louise is taking some down time, so I said I'd cover her shifts and mine this week.'

'So,' he commented dryly, 'that means I have even more of a reason to get you home before you throw yourself into your volunteer work not less. Besides we have a dinner engagement with the parents in a little over an hour.'

'I didn't forget,' Sarah's mouth turned down in a frown, 'I was just hoping to delay the inevitable!'

'I don't know how you find the time Sarah, honestly I don't,' shaking his head, Callum wondered where this woman got all her enthusiasm and energy. She had been a dynamo since their first meeting twelve years ago. 'I come home from the hospital after a thirteen or fourteen hour shift and just want to eat and sleep. But you, you and Louise manage to provide free medical care to those battered women after a gruelling day.'

'What can I say,' she grinned up at her tall, auburn haired companion in an attempt to bring closure to the conversation they constantly rehashed.

'That your past demands you give something back,' the answer from his lips was more a worried sigh than a statement. 'I'm just concerned you're overextending yourself, Sarah.'

'Excuse me,' an elderly lady broke into their private conversation, 'you look just like…I could have sworn…I'm sorry dear, its just that you remind me of someone I once knew.'

'I seem to be getting that a lot,' Sarah grinned at the woman and the thought of home made oatmeal cookies and Dutch windmills flashed across her mind. 'I must have a secret twin who lives in this town.'

Callum watched his companion climb into the car with a curious expression covering his freckled face. Sighing, he continued on to the driver's door and wondered if Sarah would ever give up searching.


	2. Chapter 2

**Interlude One**

**Crabapple Farm, Monday Morning in mid July 2004**

The telephone rang incessantly, as it had since seven this morning. As usual, Helen Belden couldn't be bothered with the instrument. In fact, since that day 12 years ago, Helen slipped deeper and deeper into depression. On the days she remembered to take her medication, or one of her sons forced her, she could just cope with the demands of the outside world.

Today was not one of those days.

**Chapter Two**

**New York, Monday Morning in mid July 2004**

Sarah had heard Callum leave the house three hours ago. In the mean time, Sarah rolled over and tried to go back to sleep but her mind prevented her body from complying. There was something she felt compelled to do.

Dressing quickly, Sarah finally made up her mind. She was going back to that sleepy little town were they had stoped for coffee last evening. Something about it pulled at her memories, starting with the man in the dinner. Now Sarah though about it, she'd seen him before, somewhere. And the woman who had approached them on the street just seemed too familiar. The older, grey haired lady evoked thoughts from the past which Sarah couldn't quite place. Even the town was recognizable. Frowning, Sarah could picture the boarded up red brick building on the corner of Main Street as a Bank.

_Maybe it was just one of the many towns Dad and I lived in after Mother passed away and I was too little to really remember it well_, Sarah had tried to comfort herself with that thought and succeeded miserably.

'I need to go back,' she told the reflection in the mirror determinedly. 'I know I should tell Callum where I'm going and why, but I just can't. I need to do this by myself.'

Squaring her shoulders, Sarah headed for the garage. Climbing into her convertible BMW, a pang of anxiety hit her. _I'm frightened of what I might find_, she realised. _Life with my father wasn't pleasant, especially after my mother passed away but I need to know about my past. Especially since I'm… _

Gathering her courage, Sarah started the engine. Something about that little town played on her mind for the entire ninety minute journey. It was more than the strange looks from the two people she had spoken too. Memories from her past had interrupted Sarah's dreams for the first time in years. Images flashed across her mind to quickly to be recalled after slumber had left her awake but feeling tired from a restless night. Although she attempted to dismiss them, they played on her mind incessantly.

Finding a parking place outside Crimpers Department Store, Sarah felt as though she had stepped back in time. Memories of her first Christmas with her adoptive family crossed her mind in a rapid succession.

_I'd only been living with Mother and Father for a little over six months_, Sarah recalled _when Mother took me shopping for Christmas presents at Macys and handed me a credit card with my name on it. My new name. _

Sighing at this delightful find, she entered through the revolving doors and was taken back to yesteryear. The interior enchanted her as much as the exterior had with its wooden counters smartly dressed salespersons.

Behind the cosmetic counter, Sarah noticed a black haired beauty with stunning violet eyes who reminded her of someone. Sarah knew instantly that they had once known each other well. Only Sarah couldn't recall the young woman's name, or where she had met her. Hiding her frustration at her partial memories, Sarah approached the display with a wide smile.

'Hello,' the woman, whose name badge indicated she was Diana Crimper, Manager, became suddenly speechless.

'Hello,' Sarah smiled in greeting, 'I was wondering did you and I go to school together?'

'Tr…I'm sorry, what did you say your name was,' Diana asked, overcoming her loss of words with obvious difficulty.

'Sarah, at least you would remember me as Sarah Kelton,' she introduced herself, offering her hand in greeting. Why Sarah continued to babble she had no idea, except she felt comfortable with this stranger. 'My father was a bit of a hobo after Mother died and moved from one town in New York to another, dragging me with him in the process. When I was driving through yesterday, this town seemed to jump out of my memory. I wondered if I went to school here for a while.'

'I believe we did have a Sarah in third grade, but I'm sorry, I don't remember if it was you. She only stayed half a year,' Diana offered. 'Like you, she was blond with blue eyes.'

'Sounds like it might have been me then,' Sarah laughed nervously, overjoyed that her memories were finally returning. 'You have no idea how good it is to actually recall something that turns out to be true. I was involved in a car accident 12 years ago that left me with selective amnesia. I only get the occasional glimpse of my past.'

'How awful,' Diana commented, shocked to paleness. A blush rose on her cheeks as she hesitated just a moment before saying, 'I had a very good friend who disappeared about 12 years ago. Strangely she looked enough like you, that I almost mistook you for her. I had hoped…'

'I wondered why I was getting some very strange looks from the town folk,' amusement lit Sarah's eyes, while her expression commiserated with Diana. 'I'm sorry to hear about your friend. Did she go to school with us?'

'Yes,' Diana sighed, obviously happy to speak of an event which had remained off limits for many years. 'Trixie would have been in our class at Elementary School. Her family still live out on Glen Road, but they don't come into town much these days.'

'I hope you don't think it impertinent of me,' Sarah's heart bounded wildly in her chest, 'but could you spare the time for a cup of coffee in the tea rooms? I would like to hear about your friend and this town.'

'Of course,' Diana signalled for a replacement with a gleam in her eye. 'Maybe I can help you remember the time you spent here in Sleepyside.'


	3. Chapter 3

**Interlude Two**

**Crabapple Farm, Monday Morning in mid July 2004**

A knock on the front door sent a shiver down Helen's spine. The sound took her back 12 years, to the day Sargent Molinson had knocked on her door. She had been filled with hope. A girl, matching her daughter's description had turned up in hospital in New York City. Only she had turned out to be someone else's daughter.

The discovery had crushed all of Helen's hopes and sent her into a dizzying spiral of darkness and depression.

**Chapter Three**

**Sleepyside, Monday Afternoon in mid July 2004**

Talking to Diana, Sarah now thought she remembered the quite, shy girl. Only Sarah couldn't get an image of Di Lynch, as she had been then, out of her mind. The image was of an older girl, about 13 or 14, and with her was another young woman of the same age. The image of a jar of honey haunted Sarah's mind, but she couldn't make out the connection for the life for her.

Shaking her head, Sarah entered the parking lot of the district hospital. So far she had driven around town, secure in the knowledge that she had once lived here. Some things she remembered, others looked familiar but different. Like the hospital. Sarah scrutinised it, looking at it from a professional view point rather than any obvious memory.

The inside was as shabby as the outside. The town had not fared well in the recent economic upheavals. Many of the services she took for granted in the city had ceased to exist in this little town. As the population had shrunk, leading more businesses to close, the towns public facilities were becoming neglected. The thought saddened Sarah, who could barely remember this as a thriving, if quaint, village.

'Can I help…Trixie,' a range of emotions swept across the dark haired, dark eyed doctor's face.

'I seem to be getting that a lot today,' Sarah smiled, extending her hand. 'I'm Dr Sarah Cavanaugh. I believe I once knew your friend Trixie, when I lived here with my father, Ken Kelton.'

'Brian Belden,' the man stumbled through his introduction. 'Dr Belden, I'm the hospital's registrar.'

'Are you going into general practice?' Sarah asked intrigued, as she always was by another medical professional's decision. 'I've just finished my internship in New York and start my residency program next week.'

'That was my intention,' he answered, his brow furrowed. 'Do you mind me asking you a few questions, its just that you look some much like my brother Mart…'

With a laughed, Sarah's eyes twinkled. 'I met Diana Crimper this morning and she seemed to be thinking along the same lines as you. I'm afraid, after having lunch with your old friend, we discovered that I'm younger than your sister, although we were in the same grade at elementary school.'

'How did you get those scars on your cheek?' Brian reached out to touch Sarah face but she pulled away. 'Don't you remember me Trixie? I'm your eldest brother, Brian.'

Starting to feel decidedly uncomfortable in this situation, Sarah took a step backwards and laid a hand on her still flat belly in her agitation. 'I'm sorry, you have mistaken me for someone else,' she stated determinedly, ready to flee from the situation.

'You can't just walk back in here after 12 years with some story and expect people not to know who you are,' Brian's voice had gone up at least ten decibels, calling attention to there conversation. 'Trixie, I would know my own sister anywhere, no mater what you're calling yourself now. If you wanted to come back and reminisce, then you have to accept the consequences.'

'Dr Belden,' Sarah took on her very sternest tone while her heart pounded in her chest and her mind wondered why this man was so sure who she was when she wasn't, 'while I understand seeing me has visibly upset you, I am not your sister.'

'How do you know,' he challenged, 'with a head injury requiring the surgery to leave those scars on your face, you probably had some kind of memory loss.'

'I suffer from selective amnesia pre-incident,' Sarah allowed, her heart now doing a rapid tattoo and her mind becoming a blur with a parade of previously misunderstood images. 'So far I have only regained glimpses of my past.'

'So you could be my sister and not even know it yourself,' Brian continued. 'Tell me Trixie, what brought you back to Sleepyside? Was it something in your memory? Or did you drive through our little town and have nightmares about the familiarity? Or are you searching for your history because the one you have just doesn't quite add up?'

When Sarah continued to look at him with round eyes, their depth communicated her shock and confusion at Brian's words as he continued in a melancholy drawl, 'Why don't you take a drive out to Glen Road, and see where we Belden's live. If you can honestly say you don't remember anything after meeting Jim…'

'Jim,' the word evoked some powerful feelings and the image of a subtle, red haired man. They had been the only impressions Sarah could clearly remember after her accident. 'I thought he was only in my imagination.'

'You remember him, don't you,' Brian continued to harass her. 'Go out to his school, Trix, because your disappearance really screwed with Jim's head. He still hasn't been able to form a relationship since the two of you had that fight. When you ran away and never came back, Jim couldn't forgive himself.'

'You blame yourself for your sister's disappearance,' Sarah realised. 'Why?'

'Don't you remember coming to Yale on your sixteenth birthday hoping to get your first kiss from Jim and start a more adult relationship with him. Only I'd told him you were too young and he needed to wait a while longer. Jim was annoyed, you figured it out and the two of you fought. We never saw you again,' Brian lamented sadly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Interlude Three**

**Crabapple Farm, Monday Afternoon in mid July 2004**

'Helen,' Mrs Van Der Pole's elderly voice sang out from the back porch where she had evidently let herself in after receiving no response from her friend. 'Oh, Helen, we had better find your medication and get you fit for I have news you may want to here.'

'Trixie?' she asked.

'Helen, I saw her in town last night,' Anna Van Der Pole spoke reverently. 'O, she didn't remember me straight away but I could tell she recognised Sleepyside. And now, Maude Crimper has just had it from her daughter-in-law that the same girl visited the store this morning and had lunch with Diana. Your son has been trying to get hold of you, for she came to look over the hospital with some unbelievable tail about being a city doctor.'

'Trixie,' Helen had never given up hope of one day being reunited with her daughter.

**Intermission One**

**New York City, Monday Early Evening in mid July 2004**

'Callum, this is Dana Sunders at the shelter,' the soft voice offered. 'I was just calling to find out where Sarah is. I know she's been feeling a little under the weather in the evenings the last week or two, but it's unusual for her not to show up for a shift without warning us. I've tried her at home and her cell. I though you might be able to shed some light on her where about. I'm starting to get a little worried. Please give me a call at the shelter when you get this message.'

**Chapter Four**

**Glen Road, Monday Early Evening in mid July 2004**

Sarah was shaken, both by her memories, which seemed to be returning with each stop in this town and the depth of Dr Brian Belden's convictions that she actually_** was**_ his long lost sister.

_I can't be, can I? No definitely not,_ Sarah attempted to make sense of the turmoil in her mind, _I would remember if I had just met my brother, even after 12 years, wouldn't I?_

Realising her mind wouldn't be appeased easily, Sarah pulled over onto the shoulder of Glen Road. Leaving the car, she spotted a trail through the woods to her left. Deciding a walk would do her aching head the world of good, she took the concealed path. It didn't take her long to come across an old derelict building. One Sarah could place in her memory immediately.

_I spent hours in this gate house,_ Sarah remembered, _but was that as a small child with my father or the memories of someone else? I know if I just walk a little further up this path, I'll come to a lake with a huge house on the hill over looking the entire property._

Without quite realising it, Sarah skirted the main house and the little white farmstead nestled in it's hallow. She couldn't say why, except she didn't want anymore confrontations with the locals. However neither the opulent house nor the white washed farm returned any recollections from her past. Just beginning to consider that Dr Brian Belden had been completely wrong, Sarah looked up to the opposite hill. If she continued on this path through the woods, she knew she would end up at Jim's school, or at least the place Jim had always wanted to build his school.

_Did Brian plant that idea, or is it a real memory_, Sarah was still trying to decide when her feet made the decision for her. She found herself continuing along the path even though her heart felt trepidation and fear. _Somehow I know all my questions are going to be answered,_ sighing Sarah realised her searching was almost at an end.

_Nothing lost, nothing gained_, recalling Mary Cavanaugh's favourite words of wisdom, Sarah pulled out her cell and called Callum, only to get his message service. Something told her she would soon need his love and support so she left a quick voice mail.

'If my psychologist thought I was nuts before,' Jim explained to Mart who stood beside him, monitoring the boys after class play, 'she would think I'm completely certifiable now.'

'Why?' Mart enquired.

'Because I think I'm witnessing the ghost of your sister walking the path between Manor House and the school,' Jim pointed to the apparition meandering towards them. 'Only she's not quite the same Trixie I remember.'

'Well,' Mart replied in a tight tone, 'if your nuts then so am I, because I can see her too.'

Swallowing several times, Mart watched as Jim took off towards the lonely figure. As much as he wanted to go with his long time friend and now employer, he realised Jim had suffered as much, if not more than the rest of them with Trixie's sudden disappearance. Besides, Mart still couldn't quite believe his sister would suddenly reappear after 12 years without any warning. Something wasn't right and Mart didn't know if he could take the emotions if this stranger turned out to be someone who looked like his sister but wasn't.

_I hope for Jim's sake, this woman is who he thinks it is_, Mart watched the pair stop several feet from each other before they suddenly lurched into each others arms. Jim picked the woman up and swung her around before placing her gently on the ground. As the tall, red head bend to kiss the woman, she shied away and continued to stay at arms length.

_Good god_, Mart cried silently, unsure who he was hurting for, himself or Jim, _Jim's going to be devastated because even if this is Trixie, she's not the same Trixie we all knew and loved._

'Jim,' Trixie/Sarah cried, stepping away from the man before her. She was both pleased to see him because in that instant all her memories had returned and embarrassed by the way she had greeted the man who looked so much like her Callum. 'I remember. Oh god, I remember everything; my real parents, going to school with Di Lynch, meeting Honey, finding you, forming the Bob Whites. I remember the argument we had and how I took off from Yale. I even remember meeting Sarah Kelton and how we talked all about our lives. She wanted to get away from her father. He found us outside the White Plains train station waiting for a bus to sleepyside and dragged the both of us into his car. Sarah must have made her escape when he crashed and the police thought I was Sarah.'

'Trix,' Jim stood in the middle of the path, unsure what to do next when he spotted the engagement and wedding ring on her left hand.

'My name is Sarah now,' she sobbed, collapsing onto the ground as her mind attempted and failed to integrate to very different lives. 'I was fostered after I recovered from the accident,' she attempted to explain. 'I have to call my husband. He'll be worried about me.'


	5. Chapter 5

**Intermission Two**

**New York City, Monday Evening in mid July 2004**

Callum answered the phone. On the other end was his wife, only her voice sounded strange. He had been expecting this call since listening to his messages an hour ago.

'Sarah, baby, what is it,' he felt a shiver run the length of his spine. 'Did you go back to that little town today?'

He already knew what her answer would be. In the five years they had been married, Callum had never seen Sarah so restless at night. Never before had she woken, crying from one of her dreams. It was that town which has started this, and somehow, Callum knew she would find the answers she had been searching half her life for in that town.

He didn't know why, but her past lay there. He only hoped it wouldn't claim her future too.

'Baby, Baby, slow down,' he pleaded into the receiver. 'You're where?...Ok, I'll call Jeffery Timms in early to cover for me and I'll get there as soon as I can…Honey, stay were you are, you sound upset and it won't do you any good driving in this state…Sarah, honey, I love you. You know that don't you…Just stay put Sarah, I'll see you soon.'

**Chapter Five**

**Crabapple Farm, Monday Evening in mid July 2004**

Helen paced the floor restlessly. The medication for her anxiety and depression hadn't managed to calm her. In fact her frustration levels had only increased in the last hour. Peter was finally home from the bank in White Plains, frankly disbelieving of the tail he had heard from three separate sources.

'If Trixie were alive,' Peter reiterated for what seemed like the hundredth time, 'she would have come home long ago, even after an argument with Jim and Brian. She never stayed mad at anyone for long.'

'Dad,' Brian's patients with his father as waring thin, 'the young woman I met today admitted she had suffered trauma, a head injury and amnesia around the same time as Trixie disappeared. I don't know how she got the idea she's Sarah Cavanaugh, but a simple DNA test will prove this is _**your daughter**_.'

Peter turned to his son, eyeballing him and whispered, 'you realises what this will do to your mother if you're wrong.'

'You think I haven't thought about that,' he exploded. 'When I mentioned Jim's name, you should have seen her eyes light up. At least she remembers him.'

'She remembers Sleepyside too,' Diana added, explaining how she had come across this information.

'So what are we going to do,' Helen cried, wringing her hands. 'I just want my little girl back.' With that she crumpled into the nearest chair and began to sob once again.

'Helen,' Peter went to his wife, unsure how to cope with these outbursts of emotions but feeling they were better than the emotional void she mostly existed in these days.

They were saved by Mart and Jim who let themselves in through the back door. Both men carried grim expressions and looked towards the other as if afraid to speak. They didn't get to open their mouths before a third figure entered behind them.

'Hello again Di and Brian,' she said quietly, drawing all eyes in the sunny kitchen towards her slight frame, curly blond head and china blue eyes. Even with the plastic surgery required after the car accident, Trixie/Sarah still looked enough like her almost twin brother Mart to be recognisable to her mother.

'Oh,' Helen rushed to engulf her long lost daughter in a vice like hug, 'I have prayed for this moment for the last 12 years. Trixie,' she sobbed, 'how could you do this to me? How could you just disappear like that and not come home? Don't you realise what you have put your family and friends through?'

'Please,' Trixie/Sarah found herself crying with her Mother, 'don't be angry at me, until this afternoon I didn't know who I really was. I always thought I was Sarah Kelton but something kept me searching for my identity because I couldn't find any memories in the places Sarah lived as a child. The doctors kept saying a familiar person or place would probably trigger my memory but it never happened. I searched them all with my husband over the last five years. Callum as been my rock since the first day I met him and now we're going to have a child of our own…'

She hadn't meant for it to come out quite like that, but her mind was still attempting to integrate two very different personalities and lives now she could remembered her childhood. Although there were still aspects of the girl she remembered being at 16, Trixie Belden had long since disappeared. Yet Sarah Cavanaugh was not who she was entirely either. Somehow, in the next weeks and months, she would, once again, have to deal with the hardest question in life. Who am I?

'You're married and pregnant' Helen released her, dumbfounded by this news. For the first time in years, Helen's thoughts turned outward. Quickly she glanced at Jim, who looked heartbroken at the news.

'My husband is coming from New York. Callum should be here soon,' Trixie/Sarah couldn't wait for her lover to join her. Yet, in the back of her mind was the incessant pull of an attraction towards Jim. An attraction, she reminded herself, which had gone no where but in the mind of an adolescent girl. However, even now, Jim watched her every move and every time their eyes met, she was swayed by his pull. It was hard not to remember the very special bond they had shared. Just as it was difficult to dismiss the years she has spent as Callum's foster-sister and then wife.

'Why don't we all go into the living room,' Helen herded them through the door way, impatient to do something, anything to calm her nerves. 'I'll fix some iced tea and cookies and then we can all hear about your life.'

'There's not much to tell,' Trixie/Sarah shied away from the spotlight. Hesitantly she told them about meeting Sarah and the accident. 'The first person I met in hospital was Callum. He was following his father on his rounds and trying to convince Dr Cavanaugh he wasn't med school material. I couldn't remember anything at that stage except how comfortable he made me feel because he felt so familiar. You'll all see what I mean when he gets here.'

'I was lost and lonely and Callum was my only friend for all those weeks in hospital. We made a pact, he would go to med school if I told the authorities I remembered I was Sarah and his parents fostered me. Callum and I were the only people who realised I still had amnesia. My foster parents wanted to adopt me when I turned seventeen but I refused. I think they knew even then that Callum and I would get married some day and weren't opposed to the idea. I followed him to med school in Boston which they supported. We were married five years ago, when I finished pre-med. Now we both work at St Paul's Hospital in New York.'


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

**Crabapple Farm, Monday Evening in mid July 2004**

Silence engulfed the room, each person lost in their private thoughts until Trixie/Sarah asked about the other members of the Bob Whites. There seem to be so much to catch up on, even if the conversation was stilted. Honey had been shipped off the boarding school in the weeks after Trixie's disappearance and then on to finishing school in Switzerland. She now resided in France with her husband. Dan joined the FBI straight out of college and had been posted to California where he now lived with his family. Bobby was finishing up college over the summer term and would be staying in Minneapolis to study law.

Silence once again threatened until Trixie/Sarah's cell phone played the first few bars of Vivaldi's "Summer" season. She knew it was Callum from the ring tone. The stillness within the room forced Trixie/Sarah to take the call outside. In the minutes it took Callum to reach Crabapple Farm, Trixie/Sarah worried her bottom lip. The memory flooded back, the last time she had done it, the last time she had been this worried was in the minutes before meeting Sarah Kelton. Once again her two distinct personalities were attempting to integrate.

'You've remembered.' It was a statement of fact from Callum. He simply knew Sarah's memories had returned and the woman he had known for the last 12 years was no more. His blue eyes scrutinised her every move she made wondering how _**his Sarah**_ would respond to a simple gesture, which until this morning, had been as natural as breathing.

Trixie/Sarah nodded, wondering how to react to confusion in the eyes of the only man she had ever loved, that was until just a few minutes ago. She wanted to take him in her arms and tell him everything was going to be alright, to work out, but she couldn't. She just couldn't.

'I have something I have to tell you before we go in and you meet my family,' Trixie/Sarah confessed, unable to look her husband in the eye.

Swallowing hard, Callum nodded. Three distinct thoughts terrified him. How would this affect their relationship, what place would Sarah's new family demand in her life and what about her pregnancy, which she had attempted to keep secret from him and everyone else until she felt the danger of another miscarriage was past.

* * *

Epilogue

**Crabapple Farm, Mid July 2008**

'Mom,' Trixie called, 'we've arrived.'

'Gran….Gran…' Sarah struggled free from her mother's arms and into those of her waiting Grandmother, only to turn back to Trixie, 'You can go get Callum now.'

'Can I?' Trixie smiled at her precocious three and a half year old daughter. 'I'm sure your new baby brother will appreciate that.'

'I have cookies and lemonade in the kitchen,' Helen smiled at her granddaughter before turning to Trixie once the imp was out of earshot, 'and before you ask, yes I have had my medication today. I feel good, better than I have in years. In fact my doctor thinks I'm just about completely recovered.'

'Mom, that's great,' a glimmer of a smile touched the corners of Trixie's lips. 'I'll just get Callum from the car.'

'Did I tell you I invited Honey over for dinner,' Helen called from the front porch as her three month old grandson was being unbuckled from his car seat. 'And Jim,' she added.

The slight stiffening of Trixie's spine was enough warning. Helen wouldn't push any further on this occasion; after all it had only been seven months since the early death of her son-in-law in a horrific traffic accident. Still early days yet, but now she had hope that all would work out has it had always been intended too.


End file.
